The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee



The Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A, January 23, 2011, Grace Church Spring Hill

“I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you…” (1 Cor. 1:10).

We think our forebears lived in a simpler and more peaceful time. We act like people in the past didn’t have the problems we have. We want to believe that there was a time when Americans engaged in civilized debate, without rancor or spite, without division into Red states and Blue states. Back then it was an idyllic time, like Garrison Keillor’s fictional town of Lake Woebegone where “all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.” Surely there was a better time in the past, an “above average” time we can remember when we were not so divided and we got along better. This is all the more acute in light of the tragic shootings in Arizona two weeks ago.

Well, maybe we used to do better than we’re doing now; certainly we seem pretty divided and nobody’s happy about that. But the past is more complicated than this, when we think about our present divisions: remember the Civil War? I’ll grant you that nobody in Williamson or Maury Counties is likely to forget the War, since there’re signs all over the place about it. We realize we’ve been here before when it comes to division.

It’s the same in the Church. We think there was a time in the past when the Church was united and at peace, but then we start reading the New Testament and find out that this isn’t the case. It’s true that in our second reading today Paul is calling the Church in Corinth to be “united in the same mind and the same purpose” (1 Cor. 1:10), but the reason he’s doing that is that the Corinthian Church is not united. Apparently they have quarrels. They are troubled by divisions between different factions who’ve identified with various leaders. Some of them are pulling for Paul, and others for Apollos, and others for Cephas. Others are claiming, “We’re just following Christ,” making Jesus into the leader of his own faction! Well that’s no way to run a Church. It’s a sad story that goes back to the earliest times.

Paul correctly identifies these divisions as symptomatic of a misunderstanding about power. That’s why he goes on to talk about the power of God. Paul undercuts our human ideas about power; God’s power is rooted in the sacrifice of self and a willingness to serve. Division comes from a desire to control that is at the heart of human notions of power, the desire to claim and stake out one’s own territory. But it’s service that’s the source of God’s power, and it’s this power made perfect in weakness in the Cross of Christ that animates the Church.

Christians are called to unity because Jesus came to gather people not to scatter them. The Church is defined not by division but by connection, the members with the Head. The Creeds talk about one holy catholic Church, about a unity that transcends human divisions and which renounces factions and parties, the tools of human power. This Church is a sign of unity in a world that can desperately use it. Human beings are divided, one from the other, and that’s the result of sin and our division from God. We’re in need of forgiveness and reconciliation, and the Church exists to be that reconciled humanity, to be the place where we can receive forgiveness and be in communion with God and with each other as his baptized People. That’s why we come together to the altar rail, a significant bit of ritual action that Episcopalians tend to take for granted but which speaks volumes about our life together as a community.

This is true in a “macro” sense but also in a “micro” sense, on the level of local community where we are called to work together as a sign of our unity. Ministry requires that people come together, not just at the altar rail but in cooperative service. Mission and ministry in the Episcopal Church require effective partnership between the various leaders of the Church, in particular partnership between clergy and lay leaders. Unity needs to overcome division, because that’s the example the world needs. The world already knows how to do destructive division. It’s got that one down cold. It doesn’t need any help from the Church with that one! Instead it needs an example of unity.

That’s the community that our baptismal candidate and our confirmands are being welcomed into today: a cooperative community of partnership that seeks to overcome division by unity, and which calls people into sacrificial service to the world. You’ve come to Grace Church to find God’s People, to find Jesus worshiped and adored by them, and to be led into a greater and greater unity with God and with each other. You’ve come to the right place, because this is a place where all these things can happen. Thank you for your witness to all of us, and for the encouragement you give us in living this life together.

- The Rt. Rev’d John Bauerschmidt, Bishop of Tennessee

Back to Bishop's Forum